The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-tiered vertical launched multi missile system. More particularly, the present invention is composed of low cost, light weight missiles housed in a multi-tiered vertical launch canister that utilizes existing vertical launch infrastructure useful for ships of the line that employ a vertical launch system useful for their self-defense. Most particularly, the missile system provides a means of engaging a swarm of small vessels simultaneously, with multiple missiles, with a very high rate of fire, in a cost effective manner.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Recent history has shown that while ships of the line generally have awesome firepower capability against both airborne threats and other ships of the line, they have very little capability to defend themselves against asymmetric threats in the form of small boats. These are typified by small boats such as jet skis, and speed boats that are determined to intercept and engage the warship at very close range. They can utilize large caches of onboard explosives or guided or unguided weapons to attack the ship. Guided and unguided threats can take the form of anti-ship cruise missiles, wire guided anti-tank rounds, rocket launchers, rocket propelled grenades as well as 50 caliber machine guns and 20 mm guns. Primarily, this is a problem that is encountered in littoral regions of the earth and regions where waterways and commercial shipping restrict the warships from both maneuvering and utilizing their existing weapons systems. One of the most severe asymmetric threat tactics that will need to be countered is described as the swarm tactic. This involves many small boats utilizing their high speed and maneuverability in attacking a warship in sufficient numbers so as to overwhelm, by shear numbers, any self defense capability the ship might have. Existing self defense systems on ships consist of layered point defense systems that can be composed of the following: helicopters firing Penguin Missiles, HELLFIRE(trademark) Missiles, or utilizing a 20 mm chain gun, along with the Sea Whiz gattling gun point defense system, the 5 inch deck gun, the Rolling Airframe Missile, and possibly Standard missile, and tactical air defense or combinations of these. The fundamental deficiency in all of these potential responses is that they can be easily overwhelmed by shear numbers of threats. Another problem with these existing systems is the potential cost benefit of utilizing a very expensive weapon against many very cheap small boats. Still another problem is the inability to carry sufficient numbers of existing weapons or to reload in a timely manner to engage a swarm of small boats. Fundamentally, there is no point defense weapon in existence that has the capability to engage a swarm of small boats.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,567 entitled xe2x80x9cCovert aerial encapsulated munition ejection systemxe2x80x9d issued on Feb. 19, 2002 to Eckstien discloses a system for launching precision guided munitions (PGMs), artillery rockets/missiles, and cruise missiles from an aircraft includes a mobile unit having a storage compartment provided with a rack assembly arranged to define multiple tiers for storing munition ejection containers (MECs) therein. However, the invention of the 6,347,567 Patent describes a portable system designed for use in an aircraft to attack several targets, rather than ship self-defense utilizing existing launch tubes.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a missile system that provides a means of engaging a swarm of small boats simultaneously, with multiple missiles, with a very high rate of fire, in a cost effective manner. The present invention addresses this need.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a ship self-defense missile (SSDM) weapon system for launching a plurality of light weight missiles from an existing vertical tube launch infrastructure. The system for vertically launching missiles from a ship comprises a plurality of tiers having a top tier and a bottom tier in which tier supports a plurality of missiles. The tiers are set into a launch canister having an interior wall to form a vertical stack in the launch canister. A launch means is used for selectively launching at least one of the plurality of missiles from the top tier. A means for ejecting the top tier is activated after each missile contained within the top tier is launched. A vertical movement means raises and lowers the tiers within the launch canister and the vertical movement means raises the next tier in the vertical stack into a position to launch. Preferably, the vertical movement means is a jack screw threaded though each tier in the vertical stack and the means for ejecting involves screwing a depleted tier off the jack screw and initiating explosives at the base of the depleted tier to allow the next tier access to a ready to fire position.
The present invention includes a method of firing a light weight missile system comprising a vertical tube launching system comprised of multiple tiers per launch canister each tier containing multiple light weight missiles, housed in individual missile tubes, where each missile is composed of a guidance system having both aero-control section capable of altering the flight path of the missile to a target once the rocket motor has extinguished, a thrust vector control/thrust divert control for attitude control during initial ascent phase, a computer hardware package and algorithm capable of controlling the attitude during the launch phase and adjusting the aero-control section in relation to measured values, a data link receiver used to receive target location updates from the ship""s fire control systems, a strap-down Infrared acquisition and tracking sensor electrically connected to the computer hardware package and algorithm, the sensor capable of providing a measured value to the computer hardware package and algorithm; a contact actuated ordinance section; and, a solid-propellant rocket motor of sufficient power to project the missile through a vertical ascent and to a speed and over a distance to enable the guidance system.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a light weight missile, comprising a guidance system having both aero-control section capable of altering the flight path of the missile to a target once the rocket motor has extinguished, a thrust vector control system for attitude control during initial ascent phase, a computer hardware package and algorithm capable of controlling the attitude during the launch phase and adjusting the aero-control section in relation to measured values, a data link receiver used to receive guidance updates from the ship""s fire control systems, a strap-down infrared acquisition and tracking sensor electrically connected to the computer hardware package and algorithm, the sensor capable of providing a measured value to the computer hardware package and algorithm; a contact actuated ordinance section; and, a solid-propellant rocket motor of sufficient power to project the missile through a vertical launch and to a speed and over a distance to enable the guidance system.
An object of a preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a system for vertically launching a plurality of missiles from an existing vertical tube launch infrastructure to ward off an attack from several small targets, such as gun boats or jet skis.